DRIVER
WAS UNCIVIL
_______
Isaac Rosenheim of Engine
Company No. 14 Will Be
Reprimanded
_______
COMMISSIONER HEARD HIM
_______
Fireman Is
Brought to Book
Before Officers, Who Decide
on Leniency
_______
Isaac Rosenheim,
driver of engine company No. 14, under suspension pending an investigation
for insolence to the assistant fire chief, was an humble fireman today
when he appeared before the fire commissioners. It happened that Commissioner
Anthony Schwamm was present when Rosenheim "sassed" his superior
officer at a fire and at the last meeting of the board he brought the
matter up, declaring that Rosenheim apparently was a type of the San
Francisco hoodlum, and that it was time to insist on proper respect being
paid the officers of the department.
Rosenheim stated to the board that he did not mean to be offensive.
"I am in the department to do my duty and to do it quickly. I
got orders from the lieutenant to drive up and did so when the assistant
chef called me down for not running up. It is not my habit to speak
crossly to a superior officer.
Commissioner Schwamm was disposed to be lenient with Rosenheim, in view of
his frank statement. "It seems," he said, "that boys
born and raised in San Francisco are somewhat lacking in refinement.
I was raised there," he added apologetically. "I believed
that Rosenheim was a type of the San Francisco hoodlum, but I don't
believe now that he is. He is blunt and outspoken. He was not
profane to his superior officer, but was vulgar, and it impressed me that
he was not civil in his remarks. I don't want to be hard on
him."
Mr. Robinson's motion that Rosenheim be left to the tender mercies of
Chief Lips was satisfactory to the board. Mr. Betouski interposed by
declaring that he often saw firemen walking around shaking their shoulders
as if they were the whole thing. "When you happened to speak
that way," he said to Rosenheim, "you did not know one of
the commissioners was sitting near by. If you had, you would not
have spoken so abruptly." Rosenheim admitted that would have made a
difference. |